LIKAJ Matilda - Albanian society internationalization: challenges and new opportunities of albanian migration during integration to european union

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1 LIKAJ Matilda - Albanian society internationalization: challenges and new opportunities of albanian migration during integration to european union ALBANIAN SOCIETY INTERNATIONALIZATION: CHALLENGES AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES OF ALBANIAN MIGRATION DURING INTEGRATION TO EUROPEAN UNION Ph.D Candidate Matilda LIKAJ Research Assistant and Lecturer at Political Science and International Relations Department Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Epoka University Abstract The fall of communism in Albania after 1990 s, bring out opportunities of forming relations with different countries of the world. The end of communism and democratization process helps Albanian society to be open toward the different countries, especially to European ones. These connections and influences between the local and the global are quite new in Albanian history. In countries of Eastern Europe, such as Albania, made these countries to form and have economical, political and cultural relationships with other Western countires. These relationships nad new cooporation make possible Albanian society to be familiar and internationalized in the world economy, politics adn other cultural processes. One of phenomena that helped Albanian to be internationalized was migration. The acceptance of migration forms at Western and Eastern societies changed because of the emigrants flowed from Balkan countries, especially from Albania toward European countries. At the beginning and some years after 1990 s the migration form was illegally. For this reason, European country applied different policies to migrations for acceptance or to cast out the emigrants. After the foundation of European Union, as all other policies the migration policies change too. In this paper will be analyses the recent forms of Albanian society internationalization in the world. Also will be analyses the recent Albanian migration and emigrant situation in Europe and their integration process in the European societies where they are living. Are the emigrants integrated and harmonizing with the European society or they are just trying to shape their life according to the social, economical and cultural conditions? Or let say that, are the emigrant assimilating their own identity just to be a social actor in the European societies? Will be providing an overview of policies of the European Integration toward migration and emigrants, to discuses and to analyses the process of Albanian society member toward Europeanization and integration to the European Union societies. Also in this paper will be focused on the challenges and opportunities of Albanian internationalization and Albanian migration in the Western countries. Key Words: Albanian society internationalization; Albanian Migration; Challenges and Opportunities of Albanian migration during integration to European Union 1-Introduction Albania is a country which has been internationalized by the falling of communist period and by the impact of globalization in the Eastern countries. The internationalization of Albania brought out the new challenges and opportunities to this society. After 1990 s in Albanian society globalization took part as a project of pluralist political system. In this period pluralist politicl system was in the searches for the democracy foundation.albanian people percept globalization and modernization same with democratization. Because the process and the impact of globalization seems to be come from western society and western societies were the ideal model formed by modernization. So a modernization perception of Albanians was quite different of the written theories about it. Consequently to this, it is good to say that the formation of globalization and modernization as the sequence of pluralist political system made possible the globality or internationalization of Albanian society in the world. In this paper should be focus on the internationalization of Albania as the part of globalization by analyzing this process from 1990 s till in nowadays. Also it is going to be following by analyze of Albanian migration by its pull and push factors. To get a better analyze of this paper it is going to be focus in the challenges and opportunities of Albanian migration during integration to European Union. 2-A part of globalization project: Albanian society internationalization Globalization broadly refers to the expansion of global linkages, the organization of social life on a global scale, and the growth of a global consciousness, hence to the consolidation of world society. Globalization is a social and local phenomena with vast implications that effects all us in our everday lives. The enormous diversity of economic exchanges, political agreements and electronic communication that we have become accustomed to see in different countries of the world, depends on complex economical, political and cultural dimensions to form social ties that link countries and people around the world. In this research paper, by using the term of internationalization of society is means the globality of society. So concept of internationalization as concept will be treating as a part of the project of globalization. The term globalization as used by social scientists and in popular discourse has many different meanings and definitions. Some of the social scientists contend that it is important to distinguish between globalization as a particular contemporary political ideology and what some other social scientists call structural globalization. Structural globalization means the increasing worldwide density of large scale interaction networks relative to the density of smaller networks. It is believed that since the 1960 s a new transnational economy has emerged in which national societies have become integrated into a global network of trade and an interdependent division of labor under the effect of the globalization mentality. So as the globalization can be describe as a process, a condition, a project, a force, which as an area it could be as an easy way to identify it with a simple word such as internationalization. Consequently to this, Steger says that globalization refer to a set of social processes to transform our present social condition into one globality 1. This is one reason why globalization can be used with the same meaning of internationalization. He suggests to use the 1 M.B. STEGER, Globalization Very Short Introduction; OXFORD University Press, 2003, p

2 term globality to signify a social condition characterized by the existence of global economic, political, cultural and environmental interactions and flows that make many of the currently existing borders and boundaries irrelevant. Social condition of globality might be transformed into something we could call planarity - a new social formation. 2 For Giddens, by contrast, globalization is intrinsically bound up with modernization. Modernization establishes three critical processes: time space distanciation, disembodying and reflexivity, each of which implies universalizing tendencies that render social relations ever more inclusive. Complex relationships develop between local activities and interaction across distances. Political globalization refers to the intensification and expansion of political interrelations across the globe. These processes raise an important set of political issues pertaining to the principle of state sovereignty, the growing impact of intergovernmental organizations, and the future prospects for regional and global governance. 3 As a sample of this issue we can take Albanian state after 1990 s. In this period the opening of boundaries formed the new organization of trade and new orientation toward other countries. Also a new form of military alliances is the membership in NATO, which is very important for Albanian society to be globality and internationalize. Robertson s definition of globalization is as a concept that refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole, both concrete gobal interdependence and consciousness of the global whole 4. It referees to an increasing level of interdependence between national system by way of trade, military alliance and domination and cultural imperialism. After 1990 s in Albanian society globalization took part as a project of pluralist political system. It is still difficult to separate globalization from modernization. Because the process and the impact of globalization seems to be came from western society. And western societies were the ideal or utopia model formed by modernization. So a modernization perception of Albanians was quite different of the written theories about it. Consequently to this, it is good to say that the formation of globalization and modernization as the sequence of pluralist political system made possible the globality or internationalization of Albanian society in the world. Delocalization (being alienated from the Albanian society and formation of desire of running away from this state) of Albanian society brought out a several problem (social, cultural and political problem) during the internationalization. These problems were facing till 2000 s, after the applying for membership candidate in European Union. After the applying for membership candidate the policies of Albanian state and the policies of European Union formed the new reorganization of society base on the localization and the new international relations. This reorganization of society brought out the new forms of internationalization. The Globalization is essentially about transnational flows (of people, cultures, money, goods etc.) across borders, but its effects will always be spatially located somewhere, and virtual spaces are downloaded and accessed in particular places. 5 By using the key concept of globalization should be say that globalization and modernization process was a quite new and so much mystic for Albanian society after 1990 s. Albania was one of those states which lived a hermetical form of living. That means there were no cultural, social, political and economical exchanges with other societies. During the post communist period, in Albania happened so many changes with different dimension such as political changes, economical change and major socio-cultural changes. The reasons of these changes have been so many factors which till today are the main indicator in the today society s changes. One of these factors has been the impact of migration flows outside of Albania and the presentation of Western cultural image to the Albanian society. In the following chapter, migration is going to be explained in details. 3- Albanian migration during post communist period Migration is a very complex phenomenon in perspective of socio-cultural and economic life. Human migration is the movement of people from one place in the world to another for the purpose of taking up permanent or semi permanent residence, usually across a political boundary. For thousands of years people have migrate to search for food, survive conquer frontiers, colonize new territories, escape from war zone or political authorities and look for new and more rewarding and existing opportunities. People can either choose to move or voluntary migration and be forced to move or involuntary migration. In Albania during the post communist period, people migration has been obliged from many factors such as political, cultural and economical transition. Because of these factors, it is not wrong to say that this type of migration has been as voluntary as involuntary. There are different factors that push and pull people to migration to different countries. As we can see the following framework of immigration experiences formed from these factors, it is easier to analyze the Albanian migration: 2 M.B. STEGER, Globalization Very Short Introduction; OXFORD University Press, 2003, p.8 3 M.B. STEGER, Globalization Very Short Introduction; OXFORD University Press, 2003, p M. Waters, Globalization, Second Edition, p.4 5 L. RAY, Globalization and Everyday Life, Routlegde, 2007, p

3 Fig.1: Model/Framework of the Immigration Experience 1 1 A.S. Umma, D. E. Nazneen,S. Mayadas, Immigration worldwide, Policies, Practices and Trends, Oxford University Press, New York, 2010, p

4 By analyzing the above Model/Framework of the Immigration Experience, we can say that conditions in Albanian society after 1990 s were very low controlled according to the economy, politic and socio cultural perspective. The outflow of Albanians migration expanded rapidly in early the 1990s as a result of several factors. Because the fall of communism and the change of political regime, there were brought out the very huge lacks in economical budget, low incomes a high rate of unemployment and the abounded of the industry, farms ( ferm), cooperation (koperative) and all factories. The economic situation at that time had all the signs of a crisis, the unemployment rate were raising rapidly and "rapid migration" favored the emigration of people of different social classes. Exiting of the lack of policies to encourage and discourage too, illegal and legal immigration include informing and assisting potential emigrants with regard to legal migration opportunities, as well as encouraging decentralized cooperation between the local authorities of inter border areas. Albanian authorities were not strong enough to stop engaged in facilitating the entry, installment into the labor market, legal regulation, and social integration of Albanian emigrants in host countries. They have made persistent efforts to negotiate with these receiving-country governments and ensure compliance with international conventions on labor and migration. Today Albania, after 21 years ( according to the study of the World Bank shows that the number of migrants abroad Albania is around 860,485 persons, or about 27.5% of the population.) 1 are still facing with some migration problems, but there are form policies for bringing social control over the migration and its situations. Flows can be controlled or managed to a degree, people will migrate, especially where there is war and persecution, where economic opportunities are distributed unevenly across borders, or where there are large inequalities in standards of living around the world. In the last few decades there has been significant growth in the numbers of international migrants especially in the developed countries. 2 According to this definition we can analyze Albanian migration after 1990 s. At these decades, Albanians found behind the new consciousness of creating a new reorganization of society structure occurred by the collapse of communism and foundation of pluralist democratic regime. During the hermetic period of communism, the curiosity of what is around us and knowing the outside world were the main factors of migration in post-albanian communism period. The potential for migration from Albania remains high due to push factors (lack of opportunities of a future life, escape from the transition and adventure of facing with utopist western societies etc) and pull factors (increase opportunities for a better life, being safety and free according to the democratic political system of western 1 L. Ikonomi, E drejta Migratore, Manual trajnues, EditTed from World Bank, Migration and Remittances Factbook, 2008; 2009,p Dh.Sriskandarajah, Migration and development,a paper prepared for the Policy Analysis and Research Programme of the Global Commission on International Migration, Global Commission on International Migration, 2005, p. 8. country etc) that we explained above and search for the new ideal life seems to be as utopist, especially in European countries. 4-Challenges and opportunities of albanian migration during integration to european union Albanian migration seems to be as a lake of opportunities and challenges not just for migrants but also for the Albanian society too. Selecting the destination for migrating is related to push and pull factors such as ease of finding work, geographical proximity, ease of entry into the host country, relatives who live in places where they migrate, recognizing the opportunities for education and improvement of professional skills, opportunity to work in their profession and better salaries compared to other countries. 3 National Migration Strategy has analyzed the impact of migration on these main areas: 1-Emigration and Demography 2-Imapct in economy 3-Impact on the labor market 4- Impact on the domestic policy 5- Impact on foreign policy 4 These impacts form new challenges and opportunities occurred from migration process. Albania has been affected from 1990 s till nowadays from these impacts. It is very important to say that integration of Albania to European Union is bringing new reconstruction of migration process. According to Brody, the process of migration integration appears to follow one of several patterns. Each of these patterns of integration confronts the issues of culture, language, identity and citizenship in entirely different ways and can be envisioned as lying on a continuum with assimilation falling on one end of the integration continuum and non-incorporation or separation falling at the opposite end. 5 The integration of migration within a host country is facing with the integration continuum which is the process of assimilation and the acculturation of society. This process brings the challenges to the migrant s identity s anomies. For this reason, during all times migrants were challenging with the stigmatization or being optimize on the front stage of everyday life. Their most faced challenge is discrimination on their own ethnicity (such as Albanian migrants in Italian society). Another challenge of Albanian migration is the impact on the domestic and foreign policies of our country and host country. In our country, there are lacks of migrant participation on the political process, for example the participation in voting process. For this reason occurs a reorganization of policies on the attracting of Albanian migrant to participate during the voting process. Beside these challenges occurred by migration should be said that among the causes of migration in recent years ranked higher salaries, family financial support, better working conditions, better living conditions, education and better conditions for themselves or for other family 3 L. Ikonomi, E drejta Migratore, Manual Trajnues, 2009, p L. Ikonomi, E drejta Migratore, Manual Trajnues, 2009, p. 14,15 5 B. Brody, Opening the Door, 2009, p

5 members, as well as in certain periods due to the level of security and order in the country. 6 After the candidate for membership in European Union the Albanian migration flows and migrant consciences have been changed. Because there are formed new policies towards the decrease of discrimination in host country and also in home countries are formed strong policies to protect the Albanian emigrants. Migrant workers enjoy equal treatment with nationals of the host countries for working conditions, payment of social security, union membership, regardless of nationality, race, sex and religion. 7 There is a strong link between the European Union integration process and Albanian emigration. This process plays a very important role in the development of policies and priorities in the field of migration. Conditions of Albanian migrants in host countries to guarantee the rights of Albanian citizens abroad and to facilitate the visa application process. Consequently they are considered as priority task of the diplomatic services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Government as a whole 8 So to conclude should be said that the European Integration has brought out cultural pluralist model toward Albanian migrants, especially after the visa liberalization. These models encourage them to speak and learn Albanian language (open Albanian cultural centers and associations in Italy, Greece etc.), to transmit culture, religion, traditions and customs from one generation to the other. The policies of implication make possible the Albanian migrant identity to be safety and non anomic. This reorganization of migration policies during the European integration give opportunities not just to Albania for forming facilities to Albanian migrant, also give opportunities to European countries policies to be respected and to stop the flow of illegal migration. world were the main factors of migration in post-albanian communism period. The potential for migration from Albania remains high due to push and pull factors that we explained above and search for the new ideal life seems to be as utopist, especially in European countries. The challenges and opportunities of Albanians migrants have been changed by the application of Albania as the candidate for membership in European Union. The integration process happened in the benefits for the Albanian migrants. European Integration has brought out cultural pluralist model toward Albanian migrants, especially after the visa liberalization. These models encourage them to speak and learn Albanian language (open cultural centers and associations in Italy, Greece etc.), to transmit culture, religion, traditions and customs from one generation to the other. The policies of implication make possible the Albanian migrant identity to be non anomic and safety. This reorganization of migration policies during the European integration give opportunities not just to Albania for forming facilities to Albanian migrant, also give opportunities to European countries policies to be respected and to stop the flow of illegal migration. 5-Conclusion As a conclusion should be said that globalization and modernization process was a quite new and so much mystic for Albanian society after 1990 s. Albania was one of those states which lived a hermetical form of living. That means there were no cultural, social, political and economical exchanges with other societies. During the post communist period, in Albania happened so many changes with different dimension such as political changes, economical change and major socio-cultural changes. The reasons of these changes have been so many factors which till today are the main indicator in the today society s changes. One of these factors has been the impact of migration flows outside of Albania and the presentation of Western cultural image to the Albanian society. Albanians found behind the new consciousness of creating a new reorganization of society structure occurred by the collapse of communism and foundation of pluralist democratic regime. During the hermetic period of communism, the curiosity of what is around us and knowing the outside 6 L. Ikonomi, E drejta Migratore, Manual Trajnues, 2009, p.13 7 PËR EMIGRIMIN E SHTETASVE SHQIPTARË PËR MOTIVE PUNËSIMI, LIGJ Nr.9668, Article 17, datë L. Ikonomi, E drejta Migratore, Manual Trajnues, 2009, p

6 6-Bibliography Steger M. B, Globalization Vary Short Introduction, OXFORD University Press, 2003 Waters M, Globalization, Second Edition,., Ray L, Globalization and Everyday Life, Rutledge, 2007 Brody B, Opening the Door, 2009,. Ikonomi L, E drejta Migratore, Manual Trajnues, 2009 Sriskandarajah Dh, Migration and Development,A paper prepared for the Policy Analysis and Research Programme of the Global Commission on International Migration, Global Commission on International Migration, 2005 LIGJ Per Emigrimin e Shtetesve Shqipetar per Motive Punesimi Nr.9668, Article 17, , 300